Stranded in Hawai'i on the no-fly list

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Wade Hicks Jr. got a standby flight on an Air Force jet from Gulfport, Miss to visit his wife, a U.S. Navy lieutenant stationed in Japan. But when the jet set down in Hawai'i, he was not allowed to board it again. He had mysteriously been landed on the FBI's no-fly list, and was stranded in Hawai'i, unable to fly anywhere. Five days later, without comment, the FBI removed him from the list.

Those Feebs, huh?

From Audrey McAvoy in the AP:

"I said, `How am I supposed to get off this island and go see my wife or go home?' And her explanation was: `I don't know,'" Hicks said.

Hicks said he was shocked and thought they must have had the wrong person because he doesn't have a criminal record and recently passed an extensive background check in Mississippi to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

But the agent said his name, Social Security number and date of birth matched the person prohibited from flying, Hicks said. He wasn't told why and wondered whether his controversial views on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks played a role. Hicks said he disagrees with the 9/11 Commission's conclusions about the attacks.

Don't worry, they're on it. Oh, wait:

A Homeland Security spokesman referred questions to the FBI Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the report. A spokesman for the center declined to comment on Hicks' case. The government doesn't disclose who's on the list or why someone might have been placed on it.

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Well, if they’re not going to say anything, I guess the only thing we can do is speculate wildly.

We already know there was that one guy who put his own wife on the terrorist watch list to keep her from flying home. Maybe this was the same sort of thing. Or maybe the wife did want the visit, but some other guy who was sweet on her thought he’d swoop in with a “Too bad your husband let you down by not showing up as promised. Hey… I’m here, and have no alleged terrorist connections” move.

* Land not guaranteed upon entry
** Freedom not guaranteed. Offer void where prohibited. Freedom conditioned on multiple factors not enclosed within.
*** Home must be purchased separately
**** Bravery not actually allowed

I know, but I have a thing with people not getting lyrics right in ways that don’t make sense when actually reading the text. It’s something I picked up from my years in school choir, not to mention in American History we had to write out the whole song properly and there were people that got less than 50% on it -_-

Let’s see if I can manage even the third and fourth stanzas from memory:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the horror of war and the battle’s confusion
A nation and homeland should leave us no more?
Their blood hath wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight nor the gloom of the grave;
And the star-spangl’d banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O thus be it ever: that freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n–rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Yet conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: In God is our trust!
And the star-spangl’d banner in triumph shall wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Not only are its words nearly forgotten, so are the sentiments they express. Perhaps it’s more fun to twine the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s vine (extra points for identifying the reference).

President Obama isn’t the keeper of the list, but the department that does keep the list reports to him, and 4 years ago he promised us more transparency in government. That’s why it should be an issue in the elections.

You are right of course. But I was replying to the idea that it had nothing to do with Obama. It does – he could do something about it, only it would be political suicide. But does that mean it can’t even be discussed during the campaign?

Numerous people, including US citizens, while not on no-fly lists, have been “flagged” for special attention every time they cross the border and have been detained by TSA and Homeland Security without access to a lawyer, food, water, or even a restroom (just ask Jacob Applebaum). Since December 31st, 2011, Obama, or any future administration, can imprison anyone, including US citizens, without trial or access to lawyer. Meanwhile, none of it gets mentioned during the debates, and most citizens are too busy watching reality television to care.

Note this: ” He wasn’t told why and wondered whether his controversial views on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks played a role. Hicks said he disagrees with the 9/11 Commission’s conclusions about the attacks.”

You should immediately be suspicious of the veracity of any account of civil liberties violations by someone who has “controversial views on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”

No, we know he claims he was kept off a military flight from Hawaii to Japan. And we can presume he is predisposed to paranoia about the government by virtue of his feelings about 9/11 which he felt the need to point out to the reporter in this case.

Aren’t you kind of making wild assumptions about his beliefs? He just said he disagreed with the commission, no? Shouldn’t it be a much bigger concern that someone with no criminal record, with no public investigation ongoing (who was just able to get a concealed weapons license, FWIW) being denied the ability to travel freely be a bigger concern? I agree with Foobar that there is plenty of evidence to support his claim that he was grounded for no discernable reason (he was not allowed to fly for 5 days). If that was just because he thinks the 9/11 commission’s findings were screwy, that should concern all of us, I’d say. It starts with 9/11 truthers and ends with what?

OK, if he was stranded on some sort of Cloud City I could see how being on the no “Fly” list would strand him. Was there no surface transport available capable of transporting a human across the pacific? I mean… the Polynesians did it with essentially stone age technology, what’s this guy’s excuse? :P

A couple of native groups have redone the whole ‘canoe trip to New Guinea’ bit, but I don’t think either he or his wife would be willing to wait that long. Trip takes months. Alternate theory: guy’s seeing someone here. Being stuck at HNL isn’t that bad; we have a great bus system that’ll get you anywhere on the island within ~1.5 hours, and there are three hotels and numerous food establishments (shout out to Big Kahuna’s Pizza) within walking distance of the airport.

Read the article. He was looking at different options for leaving, including cruise ships, etc. However I imagine when you’re planning of flying to Japan, a cruise ship home isn’t exactly an ideal plan.

The ACLU is on it—they’been mounting a legal challenge to the redress process since 2010. The most recent victory was in July 2012, which removed some of the obstacles to the suit against the DOJ/DHS/TSA.

If the list is affecting military now instead of just civilians, maybe someone with actual power or clout will make waves about the idiotic no-fly list. A girl can dream, right?

That statement from the FBI made me think that they don’t really need to worry about plausible deniability anymore, or issuing any statements about anything. Here’s the new universal disclaimer and press release that they should use for all events or questions: “Our history of lies and lack of credibility makes the possibility of truth implausible in everything you hear from the FBI. So it doesn’t matter if we confirm or deny anything, ever again.” That would make a good chunk of their PR staff obsolete, and save a few hundred thousand. I’d be totally satisfied with a finder’s fee of $5000 for pointing out that low-hanging fruit. You’re welcome, USA.

This would be silly – almost as silly as informing an actual terrorist that you’re on to them, you’re not going to let them board an airplane, but they’re free to go off and commit whatever other atrocity they can think of now that they know you’re on to them and blocking them from passenger aircraft.

Maybe that’s why it’s so important to unjustly prevent so many other people from flying – because if we only flagged plausible terrorists, the real ones we stop would be warned that we’re on to them. Because the word has gotten out that the no-fly list abuses so many poor schmucks, we don’t tip our hand when we stop actual terrorists from flying.

If, that is, we ever stop actual terrorists from flying. I’m not aware it’s ever happened, and I’m highly dubious. I do know that, given my druthers, I’d rather have a terrorist who’s been screened for weapons and is trapped in a pressurized aluminum tube than a terrorist who’s just walked out of an airport nervous and paranoid.

Not really – if you warn an actual terrorist that they won’t be able to fly, they probably wouldn’t be particularly effective for that kind of operation and therefore would go and blow something else up.

Call out a terrorist in a passport line and if he’s got more than 1 brain cell between his ears he’d blow up the entire check point.

I think we’re all smart enough here to know that you can’t ‘stop’ terrorism – so fuck it, ye, lets avoid inconveniencing the 99.999% of people on that list that actually aren’t terrorists.

Has no one else thought to google for Wade Hicks Jr.? In addition to the widely-spread story–dependent almost entirely on the word of Wade Hicks Jr.–I’m seeing mentions of him being active in the Tea Party. Gee, you don’t suppose that there’s any ulterior motive here, do you?